to reuse or not to reuse

Urban Land Institute enlists ideas to remake Houston's Downtown Post Office;four finalists emerge

Designed by Houston architecture firm Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson, thedowntown post office opened in 1962 with much fanfare.
Photo by Tyler Rudick
"The Post" plan by Columbia University, one of the few teams to repurpose theoriginal post office.
Rendering courtesy UIL/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition
"The Grand" by students from the University of California, Berkeley
Rendering courtesy UIL/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition
"The Hill" plan by students of the University of Michigan
Rendering courtesy UIL/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition
"Downtown BaYOU," University of Colorado/Harvard University
Rendering courtesy UIL/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition
The four final teams toured the site to get a firsthand look at thepossibilities for the post office property.
Photo by Tyler Rudick
Perched above Buffalo Bayou, the site offers a clear view of the downtownskyline.
Photo by Tyler Rudick
In front of the post office sits a cool mod garden designed by noted Houstonlandscape architect Fred Buxton.
Photo by Tyler Rudick
"The Grand" by students from the University of California, Berkeley
Rendering courtesy UIL/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition
"The Grand" by students from the University of California, Berkeley
Rendering courtesy UIL/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition
"The Post" by students from Columbia University
Rendering courtesy UIL/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition
"The Hill" plan by students of the University of Michigan
Rendering courtesy UIL/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition
"The Hill" plan by students of the University of Michigan
Rendering courtesy UIL/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition
"Downtown BaYOU" by the joint team of University of Colorado and HarvardUniversity.
Rendering courtesy UIL/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition

The downtown Houston Post Office and Processing Center opened to considerable fanfare in 1962 with a well-publicized ceremony that included the reading of a letter from President John F. Kennedy.

Sadly, the last decade has been unkind to the U.S. Postal Service as Internet and cell phone technology slowed mail volume to a trickle compared to the '60s. In 2009, it was announced that the Franklin Street property would be sold to offset the federal agency’s financial losses.

Each group is required to have at least one non-designer in its mix, leaving room for ideas from students working in fields like real estate, finance and even psychology.

The Urban Land Institute (ULI), a national non-profit dedicated to promoting responsible development projects, recently selected the downtown USPS lot near the intersection of I-10 and I-45 as the focus of its 10th annual Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition.

From almost 140 participating groups across the nation, four final teams — from the University of Michigan, University of California–Berkley, Columbia University and a joint team from Harvard and the University of Colodaro — were chosen in February.

Last week, the finalists visited the site for themselves.The property is bordered by a railyard on the north, the tiny Houston Amtrak station on the west with Smith Street and the University of Houston–Downtown on the east. Buffalo Bayou marks the southern-most edge of the site, bringing with it a rather serious flooding issue.

The ULI student contest, named for noted Houston developer Gerald Hines, looks for locations that will foster cooperation among future land use professionals ranging from architects and engineers to urban planners and historic preservationists.

Here's the hypothetical design scenario for this year's competition: The fictional Central Houston Foundation (CHF) is looking to redevelop the 16-acre post office site with the goal of creating a new economically-viable and community-oriented district to compliment the city's growing downtown.

In teams of five, students will serve as master developers to propose an over all land use plan as well as financial projections to measure the financial feasibility of the project. Each group is required to have at least one non-designer in its mix, leaving room for ideas from students working in fields like real estate, finance and even psychology.

Planning ahead

CultureMap joined the finalists on the tour of the post office property, trying to get a sense of how the projects might look when they're presented to ULI judges on April 5 and 6.

"The biggest part of our project was having park space," said Brian Chambers of the UC–Berkley team. "We took out Franklin Street and restored Washington to downtown, allowing for the park to go straight to the bayou, creating a Discovery Green-esque area."

Looking at projections estimating a 3.5 million rise in population throughout the next 25 years, the group took advantage of an option in the competition to secure additional land to better connect the site to light rail and encourage growth inside the city center.

"You don't get your backyard pool and your barbecue, but you get this huge park along the Bayou," he said. "Then you can jump on the commuter rail to see your friends living in the Heights or in another other part of town."

"You don't get your backyard pool and your barbecue, but you get this huge park along the Bayou," said Brian Chambers of the University of California–Berkley team.

As with many of the groups in the contest, the UC–Berkley team had to painfully weigh the costs of reusing the vintage mid-century post office. Of the four finalists, only the Columbia University students currently plan to repurpose the aging building.

"The tour of the site has raised a lot hard questions for us," said Chambers, an urban planning student. "We wanted to have adaptive reuse as part of our plan, but the time required by the [hypothetical] developers to get their money back, which was about 10 years, has made that a challenge."

But it's just this type of big-picture thinking ULI is attempting to draw out of the student competitors.

"There are two juries who select the winner," said ULI communications manager Robert Krueger, noting the first place award of $50,000 and the $10,000 cash prizes for the remaining three finalists. "One looks at the financials and another at the actual design. In the end, we want cities to be able to look at these projects and ideas as possibly viable solutions."

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on the trail

Celebrate spring's arrival at these 2 Houston garden tours

Courtesy of Bayou Bend

The tour includes Bayou Bend's impressive gardens.

The Azalea Trail, one of Houston’s most enduring seasonal traditions, returns this weekend. Once an annual event, the now biennial tour is a do-not-miss affair offering the opportunity for Houstonians to experience some of the best gardens and architecture the city has to offer — all before the Bayou City gets too balmy. Additionally, the newly opened Ismaili Center will offer complimentary tours of their nine acres of gardens in conjunction with the Azalea Trail.

Now in its 88th year, the River Oaks Garden Club’s Azalea Trail has long served as something of Houston’s unofficial kickoff to spring — that moment when azaleas, camellias, dogwoods, and early bulbs begin peaking across the city and residents head outdoors again. The event blends horticulture, history, architecture, and philanthropy into a weekend experience that consistently draws both dedicated gardeners and design-minded visitors from around the city and the region.

“Throughout the 88-year history of the Azalea Trail, select homeowners have generously offered an intimate look at their beautifully-curated private home gardens. In 2026, Azalea Trail goers will be able to tour four private home gardens featuring unique, breathtaking designs,” Emily Bolin and Hilary Purcel, chairs of this year’s River Oaks Garden Club Azalea Trail, tell CultureMap.

“Each location, which also includes Bayou Bend, Rienzi and the River Oaks Garden Club’s Forum, will offer an abundance of inspiration, including enticing planting combinations, creative concepts, emerging trends, and stunning floral displays. We hope to see everyone this weekend as we kick off the spring season in Houston.”

This year’s Trail runs March 6-8 and includes access to seven gardens for $35, spanning four private residential landscapes in the Tanglewood and close-in Memorial areas plus the aforementioned established cultural sites including Bayou Bend, Rienzi and the River Oaks Garden Club’s own Forum of Civics garden.

The private gardens — always a highlight — offer rare behind-the-gates access to curated residential landscapes showcasing planting combinations, emerging design ideas and seasonal floral displays that often influence Houston gardening trends. Meanwhile, the institutional stops provide historical context:

Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens: a 1926 River Oaks estate, now stewarded by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and surrounded by formal gardens and natural woodland landscapes, including azaleas, camellias, redbuds, and seasonal bulb displays planted by Garden Club members. Also, it is their 60th anniversary this year (opened to the public on March 5, 1966).

Rienzi: a former River Oaks residence turned MFAH house museum, where formal European-inspired gardens meet native Texas plantings.

Forum of Civics: the Garden Club’s historic River Oaks area headquarters, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Importantly, Trail proceeds directly fund local beautification, conservation, and horticultural education efforts, including historic garden preservation and environmental programming across Houston.

Tour the Ismaili Center

Just minutes away, the newly opened Ismaili Center, Houston — already earning international architectural attention — will offer complimentary public tours on March 7 and 8 from 8 am to 4 pm. The Center’s landscape makes it a compelling add-on to an Azalea Trail itinerary.

Designed by Thomas Woltz of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects — also responsible for recent projects at Rice University, Rothko Chapel, and Memorial Park — the more than nine acres of gardens reinterpret historic Islamic garden traditions through a contemporary Texas lens.

The design incorporates terraced lawns, shaded promenades, water features, and resilient plantings arranged as a symbolic ecological “transect of Texas,” moving from desert species to prairie and Gulf Coast plant communities. The landscape also doubles as environmental infrastructure, engineered to withstand major storm events while creating a calm, civic sanctuary overlooking Buffalo Bayou Park. Visitors that weekend can choose:

Full architectural/property tours
Focused garden introductions
Self-guided QR-enabled exploration

Together, the Azalea Trail and the Ismaili Center present a compelling narrative about Houston’s garden culture — where historic private landscapes and philanthropic garden traditions intersect with a globally-influenced new civic landscape designed for reflection, dialogue and public access.

The Azalea Trail will offer a free shuttle service between Rienzi and Bayou Bend. The locations of the four private homes on the tour will be sent via email with ticket purchase confirmations — street parking is available at all private home locations. The event will take place rain or shine, so keep an umbrella handy this weekend.

Courtesy of Bayou Bend

The tour includes Bayou Bend's impressive gardens.

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on the trail

Celebrate spring's arrival at these 2 Houston garden tours